On Friday, several members of the FLAME team (current and prospective)—together with students and staff from across the School of Archaeology—visited the Department of Archaeology at the University of Sheffield for the first Sheffield-Oxford Seminar on Cultural Materials (ShOX 2015). The meeting included presentations from Prof. John Barrett, Drs Roger Doonan and Miguel del Pino, and four current Sheffield PhD students (Roberta Mentesana, Yvette Marks, Lenore Thompson, and Kuan-Wen Wang). It was a really positive event and a great chance for students and staff to develop ideas and build new connections. We hope it will be the first of many!

The School of Archaeology already hosts a number of useful, freely accessible resources for researchers interested in the study of ancient metals and metallurgy, including the fantastic Tylecote Collection (curated on behalf of the Historical Metallurgical Society) and the OXALID Lead Isotopes Database. We have also restored access to OXSAM (a database of ancient metal analyses from Great Britain and Ireland)—(NB this resource is freely accessible, but currently remains password protected. Please contact us to arrange access).